


each step draws us closer to the aisle

by carolisa



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Kinda, Missing Moments, Songfic, also an ode to jake and amy's story, amy goes down memory lane bc jake is the best fiancee ever, its wedding fluff yall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-02-21 21:04:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13152015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolisa/pseuds/carolisa
Summary: Hey, babe.Because I’m an amazing work AND life partner, I know you pretty well.That means I knew there’d be a very high chance you’d be getting all nervous and stressed out about things going right right now. But listen, that’s not your job today, okay? The only thing you have to do is show up and marry me. Let your mom and Kylie and the rest of the wedding party put out the fires and try to relax a bit.I made you something that I hope will help you do that.Don’t press play until you turn the first page. And no peeking!





	1. song #1 - and we go a little something like this

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a oneshot that spiraled out of control, i hope you guys enjoy it!

Amy Santiago is getting married today. 

In just a few hours she’ll walk down the aisle, stand by Jake’s side, vow to be his wife and take him as her husband.

There’s absolutely no reason to be nervous. 

Expect for the fact that a swarm of bees have taken over the flowers, her dress hasn’t arrived yet and there was a leak in the room where the ceremony will take place. But it’s okay. She’s Amy Santiago. She’s got this. She just needs to turn on her extreme high-strung mode and deal with this because there’s no way in hell she’s letting anything go wrong with her wedding. 

But when she sits down, takes three deep breaths and tries to focus, her mind is still blank. She’s looking at herself in the huge mirror in the room where she’s supposed to be getting ready, still wearing a bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head. And everything around her is absolute chaos. 

Gina and Rosa are fighting over who was responsible for the dress and whose fault it is that it isn’t here yet. Kylie is yelling at someone over the phone about the flowers and her mother is so drunk that she’s about to make the girl hired to be the master of ceremony cry because she doesn’t speak spanish. There are shoes everywhere, garment bags all around the floor and makeup products on every single surface imaginable. 

Wasn’t this moment supposed to be as relaxing as possible? Weren’t they supposed to be drinking bellinis (a normal amount), telling jokes and stories about Amy and how she and Jake are perfect for each other? Were they not supposed to be doing everything to calm her nerves? 

Amy feels the panic begin to rise and decides she will go outside, get some fresh air and come back with a refreshed perspective. Yes, that’s it. She just needs to get out of that room. 

But as soon as she opens the door, she sees Terry on the doorway, about to knock. 

The first thing she notices is that he’s crying. A lot. Literally, full on sobbing. The second thing she notices is that he’s holding a big white square box. _Oh, great._ She thinks - _Something else is wrong._

“Terry, take a deep breath and tell me what’s the problem. Is everything okay with Jake?” 

“N-n-no. It’s nothing. It’s just that… that…that...” - And there he goes again. She lost him. 

Amy’s about to turn around and ask Gina to scare the Sarge into talking when she hears it.

“Santiago.” - This single word makes her automatically stand up straighter.

Captain Holt steps up beside Terry and takes the box from him. Yeah, this really can’t be good.

“Sergeant, I think I should take it from here.” - And Terry just nods and walks aways, still crying. “You must excuse Sergeant Jeffords, he is extremely emotional today. He keeps saying quote my work babies are all grown up and getting married to each other unquote. But, there’s nothing to be worried about really. Peralta just asked us to bring you your wedding gift.” He says, handing Amy the box. 

“Oh. Thank you, Captain. I’ve already sent mine or I would’ve asked you to take it to him.” - She says while taking the box from his hands. 

“He has gotten it and believe me, I don’t think I have ever seen him as excited. And you know that’s saying something.” - Amy smiles and slightly shakes her head. She would’ve given anything to see his reaction. 

“Well, I should let you finish getting ready. Excuse me.” When she’s about to close the door, she hears him again. 

“Oh, and Amy. I’m very glad you and Jake are getting married. The love you two share is unique and will bring you much joy. You’re both very lucky to have found each other. 

He leaves and Amy lingers for a while on the doorway, letting the words of her mentor sink in.  


When Amy finally goes back to the room, reality washes over her again. Everything is still a mess but she’s still not ready to deal with that right now. So, she decides to do what any mature adult would do: lock herself in the bathroom (believe it or not, the most peaceful environment she could find) and open her present.

She sits on the ground and opens the box, curiosity through the roof. 

The first thing she sees is a handwritten note from Jake sitting on top of baby blue tissue paper. It reads: 

> _Hey, babe._
> 
> __
> 
> __
> 
> Because I’m an amazing work AND life partner, I know you pretty well. 
> 
> That means I knew there’d be a very high chance you’d be getting all nervous and stressed out about things going right right now. But listen, that’s not your job today, okay? The only thing you have to do is show up and marry me. Let your mom and Kylie and the rest of the wedding party put out the fires and try to relax a bit. 
> 
> I made you something that I hope will help you do that. 
> 
> Don’t press play until you turn the first page. And no peeking!

She already knew she would love whatever came out of that box, and when she removed the paper, she found his cellphone (she recognized it from the huge crack on the screen), connected to headphones on top of more tissue paper. 

She took the phone, put on the headphones and unlocked it. It opened to a spotify playlist titled _From A to Jay_ and Amy was already smiling wide when she removed the last sheet of tissue paper to reveal what was underneath it. 

And oh, boy. 

Jake had made a scrapbook. 

She takes it from the box and when she gets a good look at the title, she’s giggling. “The Peraltiago Story”. After the bartender had named that drink after them, Jake started using the term to refer to the both of them any chance he could. 

After settling the scrapbook on her lap, she turns the page and grabs the phone to press play. 

The second the beats of “Funky Cold Medina” start playing, Amy’s full on laughing. She already knew what this was about and just like every time she hears that song, her mind goes back to her first few weeks at the 99. 

After the most awkward first encounter she had ever had with human being thanks to Charles, both Jake and Amy tended to avoid being alone with each other as much as they could. That’s why, Amy recalls, she’d been nervous when they worked on their very first case together. A case that, as luck would have it, required long hours of staking out in Jake’s old Mustang. 

At first they were quiet, talking only when absolutely necessary and looking at everything except at each other. But, within 15 minutes of sitting in a car in silence, Jake’s restlessness got the best of him and he pressed play on the very old cassette player on the console and Funky Cold Medina started playing. Amy rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything as Jake followed the beat of the song on the steering wheel with his hands. 

Then the song ended.

Then it started again. 

The reason Captain Holt had said “you can’t work with Jake Peralta for three years without knowing what the Funky Cold Medina is” a few years ago was because that goddamn cassingle was stuck in the deck and Jake didn’t see that as a problem at all. 

That meant that any person who was lucky enough to sit in his car for any period of time would be listening to Funky Cold Medina over and over and over again. 

Amy tried to endure it, she really did. But around the time the song played for a fourth time, her annoyance was through the roof and she _kindly_ asked “Detective Peralta” to turn off the music. 

Unfortunately for her, she had not managed to hide her discontentment very well and that was her undoing. Amy remembered Jake’s eyes actually start to sparkle as he realized how pissed off she was and all of sudden, he had a target. 

“No. It’s my car, I’m driving, I get to choose what I want to listen.” 

“First of all, you’re not choosing what you want listen. You’re _choosing_ to listen to the most irritating song on the planet repeatedly for no reason other than to annoy me. Second of all, your “car” stinks. I bet this this hasn’t been cleaned in about a year, at least.” Amy said as she moved to shut the thing down. 

“I’m going to ignore those very rude things you just said. So, you like bets, huh? Let’s play a game. Every round I win, I get one play. Every round you win, you get 5 minutes of silence.” 

Amy didn’t bat an eye. 

“30” 

“20”

“Deal. What game?” 

“Hm… Oh, I know. Two truths and one lie. You’re the new girl, gotta prove your detecting abilities to the best detective of the 99th Precinct.” 

“I have to prove absolutely nothing to you.” 

“Okayyyyy. Should I go first?” 

They played the game for the duration of the stake out. That’s how he found out about her seven brothers, her teeth brushing obsession and her eleven straight birthdays at the planetarium. That’s how she found out about his horrifying eating habits, his six massage chairs and about pineapples. 

He had thought she was a nerd.

She had thought he was a mess.

Now they were getting married.

_God _. Amy thinks, as she catches up with the present time and focuses her attention on the previously forgotten scrapbook on her lap, the song still playing through the headphones.__

__As her eyes ran over the page, her smile grew wider. Amy had no idea how Jake managed to do this but he had actually found the outtakes of the first official portrait of the 99th Precinct Squad after Amy joined them. It was a few day after their first stake out together and ever since then, they had fallen into a comfortable dynamic. He’d tease her, she’d hit back, and vice versa._ _

__The day that portrait was taken, Jake had done his very best to screw up as many takes as possible, making Amy as annoyed as possible. Under the title “SONG #1” (written in his painfully ugly handwriting), there were about seven of those discarded pictures attached to the page with what Amy recognized as some of the washi tapes from her stationary collection. In each one of them Jake had the silliest face imaginable and Amy had an increasing frown._ _

__She rolled her eyes at the memory. It was okay, though. The next day she came in earlier and reorganized Jake’s desk. His absolute panic at the pristine conditions of his workplace was incredibly satisfying to Amy._ _

__The song ended and Amy startled when she realized there was someone banging on the bathroom door._ _

__“Amy?”_ _

__Rosa._ _

__She pressed pause before the next song started playing._ _


	2. song #2 - together we stand, divided we fall

“Amy, do you have your first aid kit in there?” - Rosa asked again. “Nikolaj’s allergies are attacking again and he needs your epipen. If you want your flower boy to actually be able to walk down the aisle you should probably open the door.” 

“Coming!” Before Amy even registered anything Rosa said, she was already getting up and picking up the phone, the still opened book and the box as she hastily moved to open the door. For some reason, she felt like a child getting caught stealing candy from the kitchen cabinet in the middle of the night. 

“Hi, Diaz. Rosa. Hi, Rosa Diaz. Which is you. Hi, you. What’s up, girl?” Amy managed to say after opening the bathroom door while fumbling with all the items she was trying to hold. That, of course, resulted in the scrapbook being dropped to the floor and Amy immediately diving to catch it.

Rosa stood there for about five seconds with a “Do I Really Have to Deal With This Right Now?” look on her face until she decided that no, she didn’t. There were more pressing issues at the moment. “Okay, just move before Nikolaj’s throat closes up.” Rosa moved past Amy, spotting the small kit on the counter top behind her. 

“Oh, that’s really great for him” - Amy mumbled, completely distracted by the new page of the scrapbook that had been revealed when it fell. She didn’t really understand what she was seeing at first. There were no pictures, just hundreds of very small printed sequences of numbers and letters, that at first seemed completely meaningless, organized in about nine or ten columns under the title “SONG #2”. On the bottom of the page, a small massage in Jake's chaotic handwriting that said: _"It sucks A LOT less when I get to do it with you"._

__

__

She picked up the book, and moved towards the couch, still mesmerized by the curious inscribed numbers, but before she could actually sit down, Kylie, who was still on the phone, grabbed her arm and moved her slightly to the side, avoiding the fact that Amy was about to sit on a bunch of Gina’s makeup, therefore, saving her life from certain murder. 

Kylie threw her an exasperated look but Amy didn’t even look up, so she rolled her eyes and went back to yelling into her cellphone. 

Amy put on the headphones again just as she began to suspect what all those numbers were. She pressed play and when “Let’s Work Together” by Canned Heat began playing, she was sure. That was the song Jake made her, and everyone in the precinct, listen to whenever they were assigned to work together on a case for at least two years into their partnership.

Every time Jake left Captain McGintley ‘s office with a file in his hands, playing air guitar while making his way to her desk, singing “Let’s get on the ball and work together. Come on, Come on. Let’s work together”, Amy would take a deep breath and accept the fact that she was in for a long ride.

But that’s the thing, though. After a while, she stopped believing that all his buffoonery and childish behavior interfered on his abilities to do his job, he had proved time and time again what a great detective he was, there was no denying that. And more importantly, she stopped believing that the two of them would never work well together because of their very fundamental differences. Turns out, their partnership was so powerful and solid because each brought their own strengths to the table and even though Jake had insisted for a long time that he was a lone wolf and worked best alone, they both knew that was not accurate at all. When they were solving crimes together, they found a balance that just made everything easier. 

Those series of numbers on the page were actually the numbers of cases she and Jake had solved together as partners, since day one up until the grand larceny case they worked on a few weeks ago. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

Amy was thinking about all the work Jake had put into getting all of those files and wondered if Kylie had actually helped him, as she scanned the page once more, just now noticing a few small drawings around some of the numbers. Some of them made her sigh lovingly, for example, surrounding what she recognized to be number of the Augustine case, there were dozens of badly drawn tiny hearts.

Others made her roll and eyes and smile, like the drawing of (barely recognizable) car keys around what was probably the number from the case of that crazy woman, who insisted she had every right to leave her small children locked inside her car alone and actually tried to swallow her car keys to prove that point. They didn’t know how long those kids had been inside the car, so Amy acted on impulse and literally shoved her hand down that woman’s throat, successfully recovering the keys while Jake already had her on handcuffs. She’d never forget seeing Jake with his mouth hanging open and a look of complete wonder on his eyes, as if she was his own personal hero. 

Also there was what she assumed to be a vulture next to the numbers of every case they had almost lost to Major Crimes but managed to solve first. And lastly, she noticed the small drawing of a green and a white bar, intercalated between gold vertical bars, that was probably an attempt to reproduce the Excellent Police Duty Medal, which both she and Jake proudly wore on their uniforms. She ran her finger softly over the number next to it as her mind drifted once more to a time when she would’ve laughed out loud if told that she’d be marrying her partner. 

It was a little less than a year before Holt became their captain and Jake and Amy were working on a huge case. Their informants were hitting at a new guy in town who had begun a big distribution ring in Brooklyn. After months of investigating, they found out his name was Gregory Giordano, he was the youngest kid in the Giordano family, a huge name in the mafia active on the West Coast. From what they had managed to gather, it seemed that Gregory had a major falling out with the rest of his family, so he decided to fly solo and move to New York. 

Everyone they arrested with information about him would said he wasn’t like any other boss they had ever had before. Because he didn’t have an established network he could trust, he was very hands-on and liked to oversee every operation himself. They described him as a large man, who was very passionate and blew up very easily, especially when talking about his family, but still was very careful and did not do things without thinking them through first.

Finally, after weeks trying some way to approach him, they got intel that indicated he had a new dealer he was training on the streets. That meant he would be watching the new guy work throughout the day to evaluate him and accept him or not into his operation. They knew they had to get Giordano to take down the ring and that was their best shot. 

It was settled that Jake and Amy would go undercover, act like they wanted to buy drugs from the new kid and try to get Giordano to engage, hoping for at least a first contact with him. They would be surrounded by backup and Rosa and Charles would also be strategically positioned in case anything went wrong. 

They were in the car, about to drive to the location, and Amy was really nervous but hearing Jake babble about his ridiculous made up story for their cover in the driver’s seat actually helped a little. 

“So, let’s go over it one more time: I am Jack Daniels, a successful motocross rider that has but one flaw — he is an adrenaline junkie and being on two wheels in very dangerous roads is just not enough for him anymore. Now, he started to do cocaine hard. Like, right before the doping tests so he never knows if he’ll be picked or not. You see, it’s like russian roulette but it’s his entire career on stake, not his life. Well, metaphorically his life is at a stake too, because, you know, motocrossing _is_ his entire life. And you are, Stephanie Garcia, my trusty assistant who would do literally anything for me because you’ve been secretly in love in with me for five years now. You don’t want me to be recognized so you’ll do the talking with the dealer while I’ll just hang here wearing these cool sunglasses.”

“Sure, okay. Just drive already, we’re gonna be late.” - Amy answered. 

It was less than twenty minutes until they arrived on the street where the dealer supposedly was and they quickly spotted a skinny kid, looking like he couldn’t be older than seventeen years old hanging around a black SUV. 

As instructed by their informant, Jake drove to the front of a abandoned football camp, and parked beside a “Keep Out” sign. He did the code, which was to honk twice and roll down all four windows and waited. It wasn’t long until the scrawny looking boy came their way. 

He stopped by Amy’s window and said “Sup”. 

Amy took a deep breath, looked at him and muttered the following words: “May I have some cocaine, please?” 

It was dead quiet for about five seconds.

Then Jake started to cough nervously and the kid jumped, taken aback.

“The fuck, dude. You guys fucking cops or something? What the fuck.” 

At the sign of trouble, a huge guy left the SUV followed by two man dressed in suits. Both Jake and Amy noticed how all three of them kept one their hands on their waist, indicating they were all armed.

The large man, who matched Gregory Giordano’s description, reached their car after pushing the kid back and looked inside. It seemed that the kid was wearing a wire and Giordano was listening to the whole thing in the small device he was still holding. 

“Is there a problem here?” 

Amy was about to answer but Jake was faster. 

“Oh man, not at all! You have to excuse my girlfriend. It’s the first time she’s doing this and with her kind of backstory, it’s hard to let some old habits go.” Everyone, including Amy looked at Jake like he had literally lost his mind but he just kept going.

“You know, she’s embarrassed to say it but… Jacintha here is actually the only heir of the family that owns all of the… art places in New York City. Or should I say…” - He took of his sunglasses in a dramatic manner for effect - “... _was_ the heir, because you see, Jacintha was done with being told what to do and how to behave, she was sick of being the princess who had her future set in stone without being able to choose what she wanted to do with her life. She had a very formal upbringing and we met when she was forced into grad school, then Jacintha fell in love with the bad boy, which is me, by the way, if you can’t tell by these awesome sunglasses I’ve got here. So, I took it as a mission to show her the darker, more fun side of the world with the drugs and the um… staying up late. Anyways, that’s why she’s so formal, she had to grow up like that, but we are actually super chill and my girl here is just really inexperienced with this kind of thing, thanks to her family.”

Giordano was now staring at Amy, as if he were carefully examining every aspect of her face. She just tried to keep on smiling, whispering a small “sorry” through clenched teeth.

“You wouldn’t let anything bad happen to a happy couple in love that’s just looking for some cocaine, would you?” - Jake said, holding Amy’s hand and flashing him the best smile he could muster.

Giordano, who had never taken his eyes off of Amy, said: “So, your family’s just a bunch of assholes, huh?” 

“Hm, yes, sir. They most definitely are.” - Amy managed to answer.

“I know how that feels like. Having your stupid family telling you what you should do and shit. Fuck them. I feel you, I really do. But listen to me, the best thing you can do is get the hell away from them and get your sweet revenge, you know? Like me, my dumb family was planning on moving to New York and shit. To expand the business. Guess what I did? I moved here first, took all their little plans and now I’m about to become the motherfucking main king of the area. Right in their fucking ugly faces. So yeah, I got your coke. On the house. And if you look for me again in about a week, I’ll be serving some meth, too. ‘Cause business are going great, baby! Those fuckers never saw this coming.” 

He was very altered, basically yelling for anyone who wanted to hear. 

And Jake and Amy were smiling from ear to ear, because just when he turned around to get the drug from the kid, he was faced with Detective Diaz and Detective Boyle, who had already taken down the three remaining people in the scene, pointing their guns at him.

Amy left the car with her handcuffs ready - “Gregory Giordano, you are under arrest.” and after she had gone through the Miranda Rights, Jake whispered to Giordano - “I’m sorry your family never loved you, dude”. 

A few days later, Jake and Amy were at a ceremony in which they’d be receiving the Excellent Police Duty Medal for “an intelligent act materially contributing to a valuable accomplishment”.

Right before they were called up on stage, Jake turned to Amy and said: “I guess you are a pretty good detective.” 

Amy smiled and was about to return the compliment but he kept going before she could say anything.

“Not better than me, of course. But second best is not that bad.” That made Amy’s face transform immediately, going from a soft thankful expression to furrowed eyebrows and incredulous look.

“What? Are you kidding? I am _obviously_ a much better detective, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You wish. If I hadn’t made up that story for you _insanely_ soliciting drugs in perfect grammar, we wouldn’t be here today.”

“Well, if I hadn’t done that in the first place, there would be no story for you to create and Gregory would be selling meth left and right. And, oh yeah, that’s right, we wouldn’t be here either.” 

They kept going back and forth all through the night and until the next day, when they were all in the conference room before the morning briefing. The rest of the squad could not take anymore of Jake and Amy's banter, everyone was sick of hearing the two of them discussing about who was actually the best detective. 

“You guys should just make a bet and settle this already.” - Gina suggested. 

After the small crowd, including Jake, hollered in approval of the idea, Amy put her hands on her hips and asked: “Okay, but what are the stakes? And don’t say money because I know you’re in debt.”

Before her mind could take her down that path, the song ended and she hadn’t even turned the page when the next song started. As her mind caught up with the familiar beats, Amy laughed out loud. 

“Oh, my God. You didn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thoughts? 
> 
> here it is! it took me a lot longer than i expected mostly because i kept changing things until i was finally satisfied with the results, so let me know what you think! 
> 
> fun fact: both jake and amy actually do own the Excellent Police Duty medal on the show but we don't know how they got them so i had a bit of fun with that 
> 
> anyways, i hope you enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> thoughts? <3
> 
> the chapters are all very short (this is probably one of the longest) and i'll try to update as soon as i can. this is the first time i'm writing a multi chapter fic so let me know what you guys think!


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